2016 a good year for state Immigration Department – Director
KUCHING: This year has been a good one for the Sarawak Immigration Department in that it achieved 96 per cent improvement in overall performance.
On top of that, the department has so far collected RM180 million in revenue this year, its director Ken Leben revealed yesterday.
“There was a slight decrease of five to 10 per cent in revenue collected compared to last year and the factors contributing to the fall in revenue include people travelling less due to the economic downturn,” he told a press conference.
“About 50,000 copies of passport were issued in Sarawak to date out of two million nationwide. Overall, the Immigration Department recorded nearly RM3 billion in total revenue for Malaysia to date this year,” he said.
Leben was at the opening of the state-level Immigration Day celebration at Bangunan Sultan Iskandar, Jalan Simpang Tiga here.
The annual celebration was attended by Sarawak Federal Secretary Datuk Mohd Zuki Ali as well as senior officers and staff of Immigration Department.
“It is still not that bad despite the slight drop in revenue as we are still on the mark. But I am proud to announce that the department achieved 96 per cent in performance this year,” he added.
He commended the department for performing beyond excellence this year, making numerous achievements and gaining many recognitions.
“We have expanded our services through the setting up of Urban Transformation Centres ( UTCs) in Miri and Sibu as well as a Rural Transformation Centre ( RTC) in Betong,” he said.
“We have also expanded our scope of services with the launch of online passport extension application in which the public can extend the expiry of passport without having to personally visit our department except for collection,” he added.
He said the 1Serve JIM4U Kuching counter at Level 1 Bangunan Sultan Iskandar launched in October this year also marked a significant milestone for the department.
“We have fine-tuned our services by providing a counter that offers multiple services from passport application to foreign workers application and study visa application, unlike previously where one counter only provided one type of service,” he said.
“This is in line with the government’s mission to enhance government delivery service based on six principles - fast, efficient, integrity, productive, creative and innovative,” he added.
Other notable achievements, he revealed, include its Sky Crew team winning the Piala Setiausaha Kerajaan Negeri Sarawak at the state- level Innovative and Creative ( KIK) Convention and landing in third place at the Home Affairs Ministry KIK Convention.
With an ever- demanding public and in view of globalisation, Leben pointed out the need for the Immigration Department to always be more vigilant, vibrant, synergistic, responsible, receptive, adaptive, accommodative and proactive in dealing with the new challenges to enhance sustainable governance as well as security and safety.
“Moving forward, we are going towards internationalisation of the Malaysia Immigration Academy (AIMM) to become the core driver in the field of immigration in the Asean level,” he said.
“We will continue to face obstacles and challenges and attempts to tarnish the good image of our department. But taking in the Prime Minister’s ( Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak) advice, we cannot work with a ‘denial syndrome’,” he reminded.
As such, he urged for greater cooperation with other agencies and enforcement while corrective and preventive measures must be carried out in ‘rapid fire’ with full commitment from all officers at all levels.
Leben called on immigration staff to always be on the alert and ever ready to face uncertainties related to safety and security of the country.